State officials to visit Quincy 3 days after neo-Nazis march outside ENC migrant shelter

QUINCY − At the request of Quincy officials, state authorities will talk about a shelter for migrants at Eastern Nazarene College at a community meeting Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 6:30 p.m. at Central Middle School.

Read what happened at the meeting here.

The meeting will be held three days after a group calling itself NSC-131 held a demonstration outside a dormitory housing migrant families at the college.

Quincy police said that at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 25 to 30 white men in khakis and face masks marched to the site housing the families and "stood on a public sidewalk while holding flares, a banner and chanting for the migrant families to 'go home' and that they 'were not welcome.'"

The group left after 15 to 20 minutes, police said. No vandalism or violence was reported.

The same group held a similar demonstration outside a Kingston hotel in October 2022 to protest the state's placement of homeless people there, including Haitians fleeing the violence and poverty in their home country.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, NSC-131 is a neo-Nazi group based in New England. NSC is an abbreviation for National Socialist Club. The German Nazi Party was officially called the National Socialist German Workers Party.

NSC-131 originated in Massachusetts in December 2019, particularly in Worcester, Boston, Quincy, Rutland and Sturbridge, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

On Sunday, a group of Quincy residents visited the campus with multilingual welcome signs and cutouts of hearts. In a Facebook post, organizer Maggie McKee thanked those who attended the counterprotest.

"If you came, thank you," McKee wrote. "You made a difference. You were a light in the darkness."

McKee urged supporters to attend Tuesday's meeting.

"(State, city and college officials) need to know that people here welcome the families who have been through so much hardship in their home countries and now have faced ugliness and hatred from neo-Nazis here in Quincy," she wrote.

Mayor Thomas Koch released the following statement after Saturday's incident:

"Let's call it what it is − a hate-filled racist attention grab from a group outside of Quincy and probably outside of Massachusetts. It has no place in our community, and I thank the Quincy police for their immediate response to ensure the ENC community and the neighborhood did not feel threatened by these fools."

State officials will provide details, answer questions at community meeting

Officials from various state agencies, including Health and Human Services and the Office of Refugees, together with college representatives, will present details of the program and answer questions in the Central Middle School auditorium on Hancock Street at Tuesday's meeting.

A letter announcing the meeting signed by Koch and Ward 5 Councilor Chuck Phelan was distributed to neighbors of the campus. It notes that the city did not participate in planning or approving the welcome center.

“We are working to ensure that your questions and concerns are addressed,” it reads.

What is the Family Welcome Center at Eastern Nazarene College?

On Aug. 8, Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency because of the rising number of migrant families needing housing and other services coming to Massachusetts, straining the state's system of shelters.

By law, Massachusetts is required to provide emergency shelter to families with children or pregnant women. Known as the "right to shelter law," the legislation is unique to Massachusetts and does not apply to homeless people.

The Family Welcome Center on the Eastern Nazarene campus is the state’s second such facility. It is designed to connect immigrant families and others experiencing homelessness to social services and shelter.

A dorm on the Eastern Nazarene campus serves as a temporary shelter for up to 58 families and is overseen by AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, a state-contracted shelter management firm.

The center is run by Bay State Community Services along with support from state agencies.

The shelter includes 55 rooms in a dorm, plus three apartments. Buildings have free laundry machines and communal areas and are furnished with child-appropriate activities, according to a state news release.

When the operation was announced in early August, Koch said in a statement that information needs to be shared “clearly and directly with the community,” and that the welcome center should have no impact on the host neighborhood.

Mayor Koch and Councilor Phelan welcome information from state and college officials

Koch's chief of staff, Chris Walker, said the mayor's office welcomes Tuesday's meeting and the cooperation from state officials.

"We certainly appreciate the governor’s administration's willingness to come down, together with the college, and provide some information to the neighborhood," Walker said.

Phelan, who represents the neighborhoods around Eastern Nazarene College, echoed Walker's appreciation for the meeting, but said he wishes his constituents had been notified much earlier.

'The meeting we're having should have been in June, in my opinion," Phelan said.

Phelan said there are unanswered questions about the project.

"Is this an emergency shelter that's only temporary?" he said. "Is this full time? … Right now, from what I understand, it's temporary. Most of the families have only been there for a two-week period of time. But that's just hearsay. No one has said that definitely."

Eastern Nazarene's message to the neighborhood and Quincy community

In an email, Bill McCoy, vice president of academic affairs at Eastern Nazarene, stressed the importance of safety regarding the Family Welcome Center. He said the college is among the safest in the state.

"We would not do anything to put at risk the safety and well-being of our students or our neighborhood," McCoy wrote.

McCoy said the college will continue to work with the city.

Eastern Nazarene President Colleen Derr "has been in regular communication with the mayor's office since her start July 1," he wrote. "We remain committed to cooperating with the mayor and other public officials to ensure that this project is a success."

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Reach Peter Blandino at pblandino@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Neo-Nazis protest in Quincy over migrants in dormitory